UPDATE: 

The Australian Law Reform Commission recently requested Submissions for their inquiry into "Justice Responses to Sexual Violence: Issues Paper (2024)". This Inquiry was formed as part of the "Australian Government’s commitment to strengthen and harmonise sexual assault and consent laws, and to improve outcomes and experiences for victim-survivors in the justice system". 

The Inquiry Formally states that: Ending sexual violence requires substantial action from almost every government system. Accordingly, the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–32 ‘commits to 10 years of sustained action, effort and partnership across sectors and levels of government’. 

Additionally, The ALRC's Task was to focus on the justice system and the critical role it can play in responding to sexual violence. The justice system is often the only pathway for people who experience sexual violence to have access to just outcomes. It is the means through which people who have experienced sexual violence can have the harm remedied, the people responsible held to account, and where society sends a message that it recognises and condemns this serious harm.

The ALRC's Inquiry is about improving the justice system’s response to sexual violence. The recommendations made are directed to enhancing access to justice for people who have experienced sexual violence, supporting their engagement with the justice system, providing justice outcomes that better meet their needs and improving their experience of the justice system by eliminating ill-treatment and minimising retraumatisation.

In the January 2025 Report, The ALRC concluded that: 

1. Few people who experience sexual violence engage with the justice system. For individuals and society to benefit from the justice system, people who have experienced sexual violence need to have greater access to the system, and the just outcomes it is capable of providing.
2. The ALRC considers under-engagement with the justice system to be the most significant problem with the justice system’s response to sexual violence. Low trust and underuse of the justice system by those who have experienced sexual violence is understandable because:
   a. Significant barriers to engagement with the justice system persist.
   b. People who have experienced sexual violence are not given the opportunity to engage with the justice system in a safe, informed, and supported way.
   c. When people who have experienced sexual violence do engage with the justice system, they often encounter myths and misconceptions about sexual violence, and experience ill-treatment and retraumatisation.

It is the ALRC’s view that the justice system is failing to meet the twin goals of access to justice and accountability: it is not supporting those who have experienced sexual violence to engage with the justice system, nor holding those who use sexual violence to account. From the community’s perspective, bringing people who use sexual violence to account under the law is a fundamental requirement of a society governed by the rule of law.

These problems demand that the justice system be more accessible, more accountable, provide appropriate support, avoid ill-treatment and harm, and better meet the diverse justice needs of people who have experienced sexual violence.

The 2025 Report acknowledges "The harm caused by Sexual Violence to individuals, families, and society, is Significant.

"See the Final Report and Recommendations made by the ALRC via January 2025 "Justice Responses to Sexual Violence REPORT"

Whilst this Inquiry, Report and Legal Reform Recommendations is a positive step toward Stopping Sexual Violence in general in Australia in the future and invoking changes be made on how these cases are handled within the Policing, Investigative, Educational, Training and Legal Realms, Victims of Intrafamilial Historical Child Sexual Abuse and General Sexual Violence still remain disadvantaged in Australia. In addition to this, Australian Law Education to the General Community, Parents, Families, Health Providers, Mandatory Reporters and Immigrants is essential in reducing Sexual Violence over the Long Term within Australia. 

The Inquiry found that: 

• 9 out of 10 women who have experienced Sexual Violence Do Not Report to the Police.
• Where there is engagement with the justice system, that engagement is usually short-lived.
• In at least some Australian jurisdictions, between 75–85% of reports to police do not proceed to charge.
• Even fewer reports proceed to court.
• Once in court, many victims report experiencing the justice system as retraumatising. 

These are very concerning statistics. 

Whilst the Inquiry found 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men were victims of Sexual Violence, these statistics are severely under-reported not just Nationally here in Australia but also Globally due to the shock, shame, fear, secrecy and dissociation which often accompanies Sexual Assault and Child Sexual Abuse experiences and the dire legal processes and outcomes (low rates of convictions) well known within the Australian Community by victims of Sexual Assault and Sexual Abuse. 

Law Reform alone will not assist Victims of Historical Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse or Sexual Violence within the community. 

If the government are in fact serious about Law Reform, Stopping Sexual Violence and this Report and Recommendations seeks to promote and consider just outcomes for Victims who have experienced Sexual Violence, including 'minimising  retraumatisation' overall, then it is essential that a similar National Redress Scheme (Historical Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse) be considered, set up and awarded to Intrafamilial Historical Child Sexual Abuse Victims - effective immediately.

If not, then a Royal Commission be instigated by Relevant Ministers and Organisations across Australia. 

Why should General Historical Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Survivors not be afforded the same Private & Confidential forum awarded to Institutional Victims of Child Sexual Crimes to keep their remaining 'Integrity' intact and 'invoke sustainable treatment and recovery processes'? 

Why should General Historical Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse Survivors be excluded from a similar Historical Child Sexual Abuse Scheme such as The National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse? 

Isn't a Family considered an Foundational Social 'Institution'? 

I, like many other Australians would like to see Australia become one of the Safest Countries on the planet. Currently, we don't even sit in the top 10.